Super Robot Wars

Super Robot Wars (abbreviated as SRW) is a series of tactical role-playing video games produced by the Japanese gaming company, Banpresto, a division of Bandai, for various video game consoles and video game handheld consoles. The games' main feature is the use of mecha units from multiple Japanese anime and manga titles, mixing them together in a battle simulation and adding a complex plot involving some of their respective storylines, characters, and backgrounds. Another feature is a simple menu interface that can be understood by the gamer, even if he or she does not know how to read Japanese.

The very first game in the franchise was released for the Nintendo Game Boy in 1991. The first animated mecha series featured on the game (and the ones usually present in all the series' games) are Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, and the earliest incarnations of Mobile Suit Gundam. The first two, both creations of famous Japanese manga artist, Go Nagai, and his production company, Dynamic Productions, are representatives of the super robot type of units, while Gundam, realized by animator Yoshiyuki Tomino, represents the real robot units. It is a tradition for a Super Robot Wars game to include a Mazinger, Getter and a Gundam series, forming what fans call the "Holy Trinity", but as of July 2007, only the Mazinger franchise has appeared in every non-original incarnation of Super Robot Wars.

As more games were released, more characters, units and storylines were added to these games, both from existing mecha series and/or original units designed by Banpresto, exclusively for the games. As the number of series involved in the games increased, the stories have become increasingly complex.

Some series that have been featured, including Neon Genesis Evangelion and Gundam, are well-known worldwide, whereas others, such as Heavy Metal L-Gaim and Raideen, have little to no fame at all outside of Japan. Because much of the appeal of any Super Robot Wars title resides in the player's knowledge of and familiarity with the various series involved, the games are most successful and have their biggest fanbase in Japan. There is, however, a small but loyal fanbase for the games, internationally. It was widely believed that the series would never see release outside of Japan, largely due to potentially complicated rights and licensing issues (a problem that also affects other games, such as Jump Superstars). Because of this, fan translations of some of the games have been made.

On March 3, 2006, Atlus USA released two Original Generation titles for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance in North America, thus making them the first games in the series to ever see release outside of the Asian market. Because the Original Generation lineup uses original robots and characters not from any anime or manga series, these games do not have the licensing problems that other games might have.